RISE at CVU 2024

The last two weeks took on a distinct character as the academic year wound down at Champlain Valley Union High School. The regular class schedules and programming gave way to a flurry of final projects, presentations, and assessments. Once these culminating activities were complete, the school transitioned into RISE, an enrichment program that occupied the remaining two weeks before summer break.

RISE stands for Reflective Interest-based, Student Experiences. Students attended either two sessions a day, morning and afternoon, or chose to participate in a full-day session each day. Students might also have explored an Independent Learning Seminar. RISE is a part of the academic school year and attendance is a graduation requirement.

An excerpt from the RISE 2024 Catalog: 

Our current educational model needs regular, system-wide, and equitable opportunities for student to develop and cultivate interests. We believe that RISE better accounts for the whole student (their interests and values), connects to the pursuit of lifelong learning, and will increase engagement and a desire to learn. Our model shows that, as a student-centered school committed to personalization, proficiency, and social-emotional wellbeing; we value the fusion of conventional and flexible learning opportunities to meet the needs of all students. 

Thank you Peter Booth, Carly Rivard, and Luke Dorfman for your incredible efforts to make this experience happen. And thank you to all staff for sharing your interests and passions with students in an enriching way.

Here's a small sampling of some of the varied offerings this year.

• Art and Activism: Puppets, Power, Protest, and Paint

Puppets? Protest? Join us for an integrated creative and theatrical experience. One of the many uses of art is to communicate, to express thought, to educate, and to motivate. Art and Activism explores the historical and contemporary use of images to create platforms for social issues through art and community engagement. While gaining perspective and context through examination of contemporary artists, we will work together to bring our own passions and interests to the masses. How will we do this? Through the creation of larger-than-life puppets! We will conclude with a theatrical presentation created entirely by participants. 

• Explore Non-Traditional Career Pathways

The intention for this RISE session was for students to be exposed to a variety of career pathways that may not require a 4-year college degree. We explored regional workplaces and career and Technical centers, with a focus on the fasted growing careers in Vermont, especially the trades. We did some career development work to explore interests and abilities and visited different workplaces that aligned with those interests. The goal was to visit a different place of employment daily off campus so that we could explore all of the careers involved and figure out next steps after high school. 

• Sports Analytics

Sports Analytics offered an exciting introduction to the world of data-driven sports analysis. Participants learned statistical techniques, explored data visualization, and applied their skills to analyze performance data from various sports. They unlocked the secrets of sports succedss through data-driven insights!

•  Game Programming

Students learned how to write code to create games of different types. They grew to understand that programming a game is a different experience from playing a game. They looked into the creativity and logic behind creating games. They learned through tutorials, experimentation, and examples from professional game developers. 

• Linguistics: The Art and Science of Language(s)
• Why is it so hard to say "She sells seashells by the seashore?" (Phonetics)
• What's the difference between a tapping bot and a dabbing pod? (Phonology)
• What is the "cran" in cranberry? (Morphology) 
• You this sentence can understand - but how? (Syntax)
• How did 'hlafweard' become 'lord'? (Historical Linguistics)

Participants explored these questions (and more!) by completing linguistic puzzles, investigating word histories, playing language games, composing metrical poetry, and digging into examples from the world's 7000+ languages. 

One session at RISE was called Documenting RISE: Photojournalism in Action. Facilitated by Olivia Gatti, CVU librarian and a Pulitzer prize-winning photographer, a group of students branched out to visit and capture the essence of various RISE offerings, in and out of the school building. See their photos below. (The names on the slides are the photographers.)

Thank you to everyone who helped make RISE a success once again! 

Past posts about RISE: 

2023

2019

The Origins of RISE

CVSD Update June 2024

 

Dear CVSD Staff, Families, and Caregivers,

The last official CVSD Update of the year is ready for your viewing. There's a lot to celebrate this week; we've focused on some details to help you end the year smoothly with support for a safe and healthy summer. 

• A message from Superintendent Sanchez
• Celebrating CVSD's Retirees
• Summer meals information
• Let's Talk winding down
• and more! 

Thank you for reading and for all you've done to support our students. 

Reach out via Let's Talk (for a few more weeks) to share questions, comments, concerns, suggestions, or kudos!

Free Summer Meals!

 

Dear CVSD Community,

We have an amazing opportunity to help families in our district to bridge the food gap during the summer by providing 7-day meal boxes for free for any child 18 or under. The boxes will include everything needed to make 7 breakfast meals and 7 lunch meals for one child. They will be simple, delicious and nutritious. Again, these boxes are available for any child 18 and under. We are able to offer this service thanks to some recent changes in USDA regulations for Summer Food Service Programs.

Feeding children is our main priority and this gives us an opportunity to continue through the summer. Distributing these meal boxes this summer will help families stretch their food dollars. It will also help our school district in several ways. We will be able to keep a few of our food service staff employed and using their skills during the summer. The revenues from federal reimbursements can also help to offset costs that we will incur in the food service department when school begins. The more meal boxes we can serve, the better it will be for families in our district and for our food service department. We hope that many families will take advantage of this opportunity and that we can help meet the needs of many children during the summer like we do during the school year.

There is a catch. Meal boxes must be picked up in Hinesburg at the St. Judes Church on our scheduled distribution day which will be Mondays, starting on June 24th and going every Monday through August 19th. We will have 2 distribution times on each of those days. 7:30 AM - 9:00 AM and 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM or until all of the boxes are gone. We will not be able to deliver any meal boxes. All meal boxes must be picked up at the distribution site, during the approved distribution hours.

In order to make sure we are prepared to help as many families as we can this summer we need your input. Below is a link to a survey which will simply ask if you are interested in picking up meal boxes for your children this summer and how many you would need each week. This will help us determine the need / interest in our district and help us put the team together to handle the job. Please complete the survey by Monday, May 6.

Summer Meal Boxes Survey

Please note, this is not the order form. You will need to order meals for your children each week on a special meal order form that will be on our website during the summer. We will also send the link out to all families each week and ask that you plan a week in advance so that we can order food etc. and work on your meals and have them ready for you on the distribution day.

We understand that you may have questions. Please use the Food Service topic on Let’s Talk to submit those.

Thank you!

Gary Marckres

CVSD, Chief Operations Officer

CVSD Hosts Breakfast with Legislators

 

On Monday morning, members of the Champlain Valley School District’s board of directors, along with district and building leaders, hosted an annual breakfast meeting with several members of the Vermont legislature, most of whom represent towns in our school district.

The meeting opened with an acknowledgment that, though this is called a Legislative Breakfast, the meal hasn’t been an element since before COVID. It was a pleasure connecting in person for the first time in many years!

CVSD Board Chair, Meghan Metzler, welcomed everyone and shared a summary of the work that the Board and district administration had done for years to prepare for the implementation of Act 127. The late changes in the process and the arrival of H.850 felt like a gut punch. They knew that there would be budgeting challenges but thought we had five years to ease into them. Instead, it all happened at once. Even though the overall budget increased by around 10%, many towns were facing nearly a 30% increase in their property taxes. As the second-highest impacted district in the state, CVSD is facing significant challenges.

We are now presenting voters with a new budget which includes $5 million in reductions. The estimated property tax impact, still not fully determined, is going to be significantly less than the budget proposed on Town Meeting Day. The reductions in the new budget result in a large impact on our schools and ultimately on the community.

Other board members chimed in to say how the failure of our budget passing has impacted people who currently work in our schools, their livelihood, and their families. We all know and understand that voters wanted to send a message. However, the ones who feel the message the most are those who work in our schools and students who rely on our schools for their education, other needs, services, and especially a connection. When cuts are made at schools, it’s the students who will suffer most.

Legislators, including Erin Brady, a former CVSD board member who is the vice chair of the House Committee on Education and a teacher in another district, provided insight from their perspective. This is a much larger topic and the issues related to education will not be resolved at the end of this session.

Some main points that were made at the meeting include:

• There’s an understanding that many school district budgets were voted down to send a message to the legislature. They heard that message. However, community members should directly reach out to our legislators to provide thoughts and feedback about education and education funding in Vermont. Keep sending messages.
• We need to right-size public education that serves all students and uses public funding sustainably. It is a systems problem and a funding problem. We need to fix both at the same time.
• The House Ways and Means Committee focuses on how education is funded, not education itself. We can’t lead with taxes. It’s purely a funding formula; it’s not about what our students need.
• We’ll be using the tax rate in H.850 for the next fiscal year. There is likely no change to the funding formula coming before the end of this session.
• Another challenge is that the Agency of Education is under-resourced. It doesn’t have the capacity to fix and improve things.
• Mental and behavioral supports are in school budgets - that is not going away. Here’s a piece from Senator Doug Racine in VTDigger about children’s mental health and property taxes.
• There’s work underway to explore school facility needs across Vermont. Again, this won’t be solved soon, but it is a focus.
• We have this year and maybe next year to buy time to find ways to add revenue to the ed fund. That’s competing with other priorities the legislature is working on. The state, the legislature, the governor, and the people of Vermont must be committed to education.

Toward the end of the meeting, CVSD Board members summarized our current environment for the legislators - say that you heard us. Say that more money is going into our education fund. We are all taxpayers. Failing budgets only impact the system negatively. We have a high-quality school district. The longer this system continues, the worse it’s going to get because we’ll have to decimate our district.

We need communities to reach out to our legislators so they continuously hear that we have to deal with public education now. Send an email, make phone calls. They need to hear more and directly from taxpayers. Tell them how you feel. Communicate as widely as you can and encourage friends and neighbors to do the same.

Here’s a recording of the Legislative Breakfast.

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Legislators attending the breakfast: Rep. Chea Waters Evans, Senator Tom Chittenden, Rep. Jessica Brumsted, Rep. Erin Brady, Rep. Angela Arsenault, Rep. Phil Pouech

CVSD Board Members attending: Angela Arsenault, Erika Lea, Erin Henderson, Cassandra Townshend, Kate Webb, Dave Connery, Meghan Metzler, Brendan McMahon, Keith Roberts, Lindsay Colf

Contact information for some of our legislators:

• Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale kramhinsdale@leg.state.vt.us
• Sen. Thomas Chittenden TChittenden@leg.state.vt.us
• Sen. Virginia Lyons VLyons@leg.state.vt.us
• Rep. Kate Lalley KLalley@leg.state.vt.us
• Rep. Jessica Brumsted JBrumsted@leg.state.vt.us
• Rep. Phil Pouech PPouech@leg.state.vt.us
• Rep. Chea Waters Evans CEvans@leg.state.vt.us
• Rep. Erin Brady EBrady@leg.state.vt.us  House Committee on Education Vice Chair
• Rep. Noah Hyman NHyman@leg.state.vt.us
• Rep. Angela Arsenault AArsenault@leg.state.vt.us
• Sen. Brian Campion BCampion@leg.state.vt.us  Senate Committee on Education Chair
• Rep. Peter Conlon PConlon@leg.state.vt.us  House Committee on Education Chair

Author Jason Chin Visits CVSD Schools

Science teachers across the district have been looking for ways to integrate science into reading and writing classes while also creating a shared experience for our PreK-8 students. This week, CVSD's PreK-8 buildings are welcoming Jason Chin to share his experiences and insights into writing and illustrating children’s books. Jason Chin, a local author and illustrator, is a diverse author and a Caldecott Medal winner who has written and illustrated a series of children’s books including many on non-fiction science topics.

“I love meeting readers and sharing what I love, and I hope that my visits will help young readers see themselves as artists, scientists, readers and writers.” -Jason Chin

These visits were funded through a grant, the school district, and each school's PTO/family organizations supported it as well.

Thank you, Jason, for such enriching and engaging presentations! Here are a few photos from the visit with Williston students yesterday. He was in Charlotte today and will be in Shelburne and Hinesburg this week as well.

A Long-Awaited Sculpture in the WCS Courtyard

 Here's a guest post from WCS art educator, Abbie Bowker. 

Our guest artist/educator, Katie O’Brien had the idea for this sculpture when a cedar tree fell in her yard and she wondered “what if I were to put the tree back together again - as a sculpture?” The idea was formed and she worked with ABS/WCS teachers Sara Beeken and Julie Rogers to create a proposal for collaborative outdoor sculpture at one of our Williston Schools. The trio received a grant from the Williston Family as Partners group to fund the project which was supposed to happen the spring of 2020. We picked up the project and planned to reinstate it this fall!

Katie supplied all the materials for the project from the grant, and her fallen cedar tree. She cut off small pieces of the branches so that each student could “take home a piece of the sculpture” and make something special they could wear as a necklace or hang as a decoration. She wanted the kiddos to be able to contribute to the community sculpture, but also wanted something tangible they could keep as a memento.

As a class we prepared by learning about color theory and color mixing. Next, we learned about contrast and unity as concepts relating to color, and balance and repetition as concepts relating to design/pattern. When Katie came to us, our students learned about the idea of abstraction being either representational or non-objective and considered what kind of design they wanted to use on their section of the sculpture. 

She showed them an example of a similar work she had made in her garden, and demonstrated painting techniques they could use on their artworks. Over the course of the next few days two of our 5th and 6th grade classes contributed to painting the sculpture.

A few students helped to “thread” the sculpture like beads and we fine tuned the presentation of it indoors.

Then, Katie and her husband Tim came and installed the sculpture in the courtyard! It was a fantastic experience for all!

Thank you to our student artists, Katie, Tim, Sara Beeken and Julie Rogers, and Families as Partners for whom we could not have had the experience without! I hope you will be able to see the beautiful sculpture in the courtyard, or outside our music room window, soon!

What is Harkness?

Recently, CVU's 10th and 11th grade Harkness Building Coaches traveled to Harwood Union High School to participate in Harkness discussions with their counterparts at that school. The pictures below show a trust-building warm-up activity and then discussions completely led by students. In particular, CVU and Harwood 11th graders - who have a bit more training than the 10th graders - facilitated the discussions for the 10th graders. As is typical in high-quality Harkness, all the teachers had to do was sit back and observe. Magic only begins to describe it.

CVU will host Harwood's Harkness Building Coaches for a similar summit on Thursday, December 14.

We asked Brad Miller, a CVU social studies teacher to help our community learn more about Harkness. Here are his responses in a question/answer format. Thank you for your leadership on this valuable work, Brad! 

What is Harkness?

The Harkness Method began in 1930 at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH, and is still their primary mode of instruction today. It has since become very popular in the private school world, in large part due to Exeter’s renown.

In short, The Harkness Method asks that students be responsible for their own learning. Instead of the teacher being the sole deliverer of content, students are taught to engage with each other using the tools of civil discourse, taught to engage with content through annotation and questioning, and then taught to make sense of that content together ‘at the table’ (pictured above) using those tools of civil discourse. The teacher’s role is more to steer discussion and collaboration towards key understandings rather than leading them to those understandings through lectures.

Does Harkness at CVU look the same as Harkness in private school?

No. CVU - or any public school - can’t replicate the private school model. Instead, we teach a Harkness curriculum that operates within our capacity. We use highly scaffolded steps to bring our students ‘to the table,’ so to speak. While our version takes more time and has more steps, many CVU students at this very moment are skilled enough that they could sit down at the table with Exeter students and you wouldn’t notice a difference.

What’s the difference between a Harkness discussion and a Socratic Seminar?

Think of Socratic Seminar as one of the final steps along the Harkness process. Socratic Seminar is a discussion in which the teacher comes prepared with questions for the students to answer in order to achieve an understanding about content. Harkness pushes one step past that and instead asks the students to be the ones preparing questions. They would then engage each other in discussion, with the teacher there to provide direction and quality control.

Are Harkness discussions just freewheeling, dorm room-style riff sessions?

No. Successful Harkness teachers prepare vigilantly beforehand to make sure that their discussions are ones in which there aren’t interruptions, there is clear direction, content is the driver, and every voice matters. A student won’t be successful at Harkness simply by talking the most. The quality of their comments and their active listening are more important than their ability to talk a lot.

Is Harkness just meant for the Humanities classroom?

No, but Harkness does look different in different disciplines. For example, it’s totally reasonable for Humanities teachers to expect their students to be able to sit in circles of 10-12 and have discussions about content. That might not be applicable to, say, a math or science classroom. Instead, in that context, Harkness might look like groups of 4-6 collaborating on problems or labs. One is not more valuable than the other, especially since the same skills of civil discourse can be taught and assessed. The teacher’s goals, how students reflect, and what’s being assessed are all potential commonalities between Harkness in different disciplines at CVU.

What’s the difference between Harkness and a debate?

Harkness isn’t a setting in which students seek to ‘win’ or ‘own’ each other, as they might say. It’s a setting in which students are asked to unpack complex content together through civil discourse. Sure, disagreement is a natural part of Harkness, but ‘winning’ is not something that’s prized within the pedagogy. Perhaps a teacher might use a Harkness discussion to help their students prepare for a debate.

What's the current status of Harkness at CVU? 

An after school class to help educators learn about Harkness is now in its third year and I’m proud to say that my co-teacher, Kathy Cadwell, (from Harwood) and I have trained 27 CVU teachers in the Harkness Method. Over and over again, I have seen that Harkness allows students to be heard, to take risks, and to experience a much more equitable version of classroom discussion than I had used in the past.

How many CVU students have been trained in Harkness?

Every single 9th grader received training last year. Additionally, most current juniors participated in some degree of Harkness training during their 9th-10th grade years. The ripple effects that teachers are seeing in their 10th and 11th-grade class discussions are profound.

What do CVU students like about Harkness? 

The responses below come from anonymous surveys given to 9th graders last year.

• I liked the emphasis on including everyone in the discussions.
• I liked the passionate discussions, how it was so polite without any interruptions and I loved the vibe of the room.
• We didn't interrupt, like, at all, and that was great, as that's something I get mad at my friends for doing. I think we all had great points to share too.
• I think I did a good job listening to others and letting others talk. I have a tendency to talk for a long time, and I think I did a good job holding back and letting others have the floor.
• We had a lot of really good connections to things you would never think of connected to what we were talking about. Hearing these made what we were talking about easier to understand.
• I think it gave me some new ideas and a deeper understanding of the units than I would have learned on my own.
• I liked to hear everyone's ideas, and I liked to see my classmates growth.
• It was a good way to get ideas for the LEAF formatives and summatives. I also think it was a good way to get comfortable with sharing your ideas to a group and potentially disagreeing with others.
• I felt like I was heard and my opinions were valued. I didn’t feel embarrassed when I messed up or stumbled over my words. I felt very included.
• It is really hard to be actively in the discussion if you are not prepared.
• I really liked how we had a lot of control as the students.

Save the Date for a Great Community Event!

 

The Flynn and the Champlain Valley School District are excited to bring Playing Fields to CVSD for the second year in a row. Bring your friends, family, and neighbors to come play with us on Thursday, September 7th from 6-8 pm at CVU. Come at 6:00 to make sure you don't miss anything!

This whimsical event is a free back-to-school celebration for the school district and surrounding community. 

Be amazed as 12-foot tall, luminous horses light up the field and joust, dance, and play with the crowd. 

Mark your calendars now! 

Helicopter Lands at CCS

Sam Slater, a Charlotte Central School parent and CPT in the VT Army National Guard, flew a Blackhawk helicopter that landed in the soccer field today. All students were gathered to watch the landing and then smaller groups had the opportunity to take a closer look.

Several Guardsman were present to maintain safety during the landing and takeoff and to help answer questions. Students could explore the helicopter and learn more about the power of STEM education. They did a fabulous job responding and explaining many aspects of the science behind how helicopters work, some things about their roles with the National Guard, and how and when the helicopter is used.

Teacher, Shannon Spellman

Jen Roth, principal, and Courtney Krahn, assistant principal

Upcoming Event: Youth Vaping Panel

Here's a message from ParentIN

According to an October 2022 ParentIN survey, 87% of CVSD caregivers viewed smoking/vaping as a big problem or somewhat big problem among our youth. ParentIN is addressing this health concern head on with a community education event for caregivers.

The virtual discussion with expert panelists will share what you need to know about vaping and actionable ways to prevent our children from starting.

Learn more and register today! 

CVSD Sets a Penguin Plunge Record

The annual Penguin Plunge event, a fundraiser for Special Olympics Vermont, was canceled this year due to the extremely cold temperatures on February 4. Those who had signed up to participate, as teams or individuals, were encouraged to find another way to show their support for this great organization. Once again, CVSD schools came through. The total raised by teams representing all of our schools came in at over $53,000! 

Thank you to the organizers, students, faculty, staff, parents and caregivers who dedicated their time to raising funds and to those who created alternate events to keep the spirit strong.

Shelburne

The Shelburne Community School Plungers, led by student Gray Latka, raised $5589! They organized an alternate event at Shelburne Beach on February 20th.

Charlotte

Charlotte's team, made up of 12 staff members called CCS and Company, held an alternate event at Charlotte Town Beach on February 15, raising $4104 for Special Olympics Vermont! 

Hinesburg

Hinesburg Community School's team, led by Paul Lasher, had 46 participants. 35 of those were there to plunge into Lake Iroquois on Saturday, February 11. They raised just over $12,000! See the NBC5 story below.

Williston
On Saturday, February 11, 35 brave Williston penguins assembled in the WCS parking lot - seated in a circle on cold metal folding chairs, waiting for a “Bucket buddy” to dump an ice cold bucket of water over their heads.

They counted down from 10, and then went around the circle. A few brave souls even volunteered to take a 2nd bucket for the cause! It was a crisp sunny day - and the Wildcat spirit was alive and well.

The team felt great about honoring the generous donations raised that totaled over $16,400 - Wow! In fact, for the first time, our Williston Team was the top fundraiser among the school teams signed up for the event this year.

Shout outs go to Emily Downing-Ponce, Ingrid Luby, Sam Beatson, Lauren Goracy, and Cathy Kohlasch - all who helped to make the event possible.
 

CVU

The massive effort by CVU, always a top fundraiser, did not disappoint this year. They raised $15,544 in support of Special Olympics Vermont! When we get more information, we will add it here. 

We are so proud of all who organized, participated, and donated to this great event. Thank you CVSD!

 

Robotics in Action

We are thrilled to share the positive news about the expansion of robotics in CVSD. CVU's Robohawks have led the way on many levels. First, they garnered well-deserved attention for their own success as the Vermont Robotics Champions, which we wrote about last spring here. They traveled to Houston to compete in the FIRST Robotics World Championship. That was an amazing experience, where they connected with and learned from other robotics teams and represented CVSD well.

Also last spring, the Robohawks were awarded a grant to support robotics teams at our other schools. That grant provided materials for teams from each of our K-8 schools, enabling them to learn about, prepare, practice, and then participate in FIRST LEGO League (FLL) competitions. The Robohawks followed that up this year by visiting the K-8 teams and offered guidance, expertise, and enthusiastic support. 

Early this fall, teams were formed and coaches and volunteers were recruited. Funding for the coaches and some additional materials was provided by a number of district grants including a Rowland Foundation grant awarded to Tim O'Leary and Charlie MacFadyen and a CVSD Innovation grant. Tim O'Leary was especially instrumental in organizing and supporting the effort to get the FLL teams underway.

We are proud to say that every one of CVSD's K-8 schools had a team this year and they all participated in the Vermont FIRST LEGO League competition at the end of January. Some photos from that event and comments from coaches and students can be found below. 

From WCS Coach Allan Miller: 

It was great to see all 4 CVSD schools field successful teams this year and a huge thank you to Tim O’Leary and Charlie MacFadyen for sharing the Roland grant funds to help support the teams and Olaf Verdonk and the CVU Robohawks for their financial and technical support. This is probably the most successful full-district initiative I’ve seen in the past 10 years.

From SCS Coach Joey Adams: 

The SCS RoboCats finished up their first season with a resounding crescendo of teamwork and joy at the First Lego League Robotics State Championships at Norwich University on January 28th. The team was composed of over forty SCS students from grades 4th-7th who participated in the after-school sport from October to January. Their dedication to teamwork, building friendships, and having fun were on full display at the competition and throughout the season. The RoboCats worked hard on building robots to solve complex missions that involved learning and applying computer coding skills while working interdependently. The competition also included an intense judging panel that interviewed the RoboCats about their team roles, challenges, and what they learned as individuals and as a team. A quote from many RoboCats during the judging panel and feedback received about this new sport at SCS is best summed up: "...we worked so hard as a team and we learned so much but we also had so much fun while making new friends..." The RoboCats and the coaches can't wait for next season where we plan to roar with joy even louder together! 

From Tim Holcomb and CCS:

The kids worked really hard in completing several missions and getting their attachments to cooperate. With lots of innovation and creativity, they were proud of (and surprised) at how well they performed at the competition. As a team, we are looking forward to growing and continuing our program.

From HCS Student Jo Reiley:

On January 28, 2023, twenty-six teams gathered at Norwich University for the FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) Statewide Championship. Among the teams was a group of ten HCS students from 4th through 8th grade gathered at Norwich to test their coding skills and teamwork. They raced against another team’s robot to complete a set of missions in the span of two and a half minutes. They had been preparing for this moment since October, starting out by just doing a couple of team building activities then slowly escalating into building complex Lego builds including wind turbines, as well as researching a chosen community problem to face for the Innovation Project.

FLL was originally founded by Dean Kamen in 1998. He worked with the owner of the LEGO group Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen to create a fun, STEM, teamwork emphasizing competition. Since then, teams from around the country have been working to code their robot and figure out what their Innovation Project is going to be about.

The team from HCS, or “Platinum Builders,” chose to do three different missions and got set on making those perfect. Their Innovation Project on the other hand was about turbines and their ability to collect energy. No one knew each other very well in the beginning but throughout the past couple of weeks, they have created quite a bond with each other. They hope that their team will grow next year and can’t wait to partake in the competition again.

- HCS coaches are Stephanie Bruning and Sunshine Ouimette

And finally, the Robohawks did it again and defended their title last weekend as Vermont state champions! Here's a description from coach Olaf Verdonk. 

CVU hosted the annual Vermont FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Championship this past weekend. There were 19 robotics teams from all over Vermont and this is the second year that CVU has entered TWO teams into the tournament; the varsity squad RoboHawks (#5741) and the JV squad RoboRedhawks (#22683). You may recall that last year the RoboHawks qualified for the World Championship...well this year both teams were outstanding!
This year CVU will be sending not one team to the World Championship, but BOTH teams!

The JV team managed to outplay the varsity team and led the way to the afternoon playoff stages. The JV team created an alliance partnership with the varsity team and together this CVU alliance won the tournament! The best of three finals were SUPER exciting with the CVU alliance winning the last match by only 4 points! The tournament win gives the JV team a berth for the World Championship in Houston, TX. Not to be outdone by the JV team, the varsity RoboHawks team were selected as the prestigious Inspire Award champions as the best team and robot in the tournament which qualified them for the World Championship in Houston, TX in April.

The RoboHawks won several other awards due to their outstanding work in all aspects of the competition. They vastly outscored all teams in the judged presentation, design, and engineering portfolio events of the tournament.

This document outlines all their awards, as well as description of the semi-final and final knockout stage matches.

RoboHawks:
Crawford Phillips, Jared Kennedy, Sam Yager, Violet Fennern, Jack Gourlay, James Haines, Addison Hoopes, Joe Jacobs, Jaden Parker

RoboRedhawks:
Clay Nicholson, Braden Griffin, Will Akerly, Gavin Blackburn, Jacob Graham, with support from Rhett Gardner and Sean Maynard

Congratulations and well done to all students, coaches, and volunteers! 

 

Stone Soup at SCS

 Here's a guest post from Shelburne Community School: 

We had lots of smiling faces last week as we collected ingredients and made stone soup. If you're not familiar with the story that sparked this activity, check it out in our library or see this short, animated video version. Hopefully, the kids will have taken the enthusiasm and some new skills home!

It was really impressive to see how attentive they listened, and how focused, and enthusiastic the kids were when peeling, chopping and cleaning up. With all the chatting, it really felt like friends preparing a meal together. They showed resourcefulness (how about using scissors for the herbs?) and flexibility (substituting tools if needed). They willingly shared and swapped stations to try something new. Many parent helpers and teachers commented on the value of these life skills.

Here is Stone Soup by the numbers; our recipe for success:

230 kids helped prep
150lbs of chopped vegetables
75 gallons of soup
40 adult helping hands (some multiple times)
23 different vegetables and herbs
12 classes and cohorts
4 days of fun
3 donated stones
2 visits to the nurses
1 amazing community

Thank you to the parent/caregiver community, teachers, our food service staff, and our wonderful students. 

RoboHawks Get to Work and Support the Community

Here's a guest post from the CVU Robohawks team. 

This week the RoboHawks and JV Redhawk Robotics teams met and started to dig deep into brainstorming, designing and prototyping this year's bot after the season's release on the 10th, as well as hosted a workshop to introduce the CVSD middle school students to robotics.

The workshop hosted at CVU by the RoboHawks this past Tuesday for students and parents in the CVSD district focused on the FIRST Lego League (FLL) robotics competition. The event marks the beginning of the program after months of behind-the-scenes work and makes their goal a reality of helping each district middle school start an FLL robotics team. The RoboHawks aim to strengthen and encourage participation in STEAM programs within the community by promoting and supporting opportunities for middle school students. The workshop was tremendously successful, with excellent attendance and representation from every CVU sending school! The RoboHawks worked with students to begin their coding adventure in FLL robotics and gave parents a great overview of why the program is valuable and fun! This year’s challenge is power themed and includes tons of fun challenges to tackle. We can't wait to see FIRST Core Values grow in each district school and see where the program goes!

RoboHawks will be hosting another FLL workshop in the near future. For more information or if you would like to learn more about our team, check out our website, or feel free to contact us at cvu_robohawks_2022@cvsdvt.org.

CVSD Update, September 1, 2022

 Dear CVSD Families and Caregivers,

We have had a fantastic start to the new school year and we have you to thank for that, along with all CVSD employees. Welcoming everyone, whether new to our district, new to your school, or new to a grade or classroom, was a true pleasure over the past two days.

Through this message, we share the latest district newsletter. We publish these about every two weeks and try to make sure they don’t overlap with school newsletters. We appreciate you taking the time to read the newsletters.

In this edition, there is a letter from Superintendent Sanchez and below that, other updates, news, and events. Many of these are repeated from our last newsletter and that’s intentional. These are important and we encourage you to read them.

Some elements that you don’t want to miss:

• The superintendent’s letter
• A community-building welcome back event this Tuesday, in collaboration with the Flynn
• Many reasons why you should fill out the Free/Reduced Meals form, even though meals are free for all this year
• A hiring event taking place this Saturday
• And many other important and timely reminders

As always, please use Let’s Talk to provide feedback, ask questions, or share compliments.

Enjoy the long weekend ahead!

The Champlain Valley School District

Welcome Back CVSD Faculty

Today marked the official first day back for our faculty across CVSD. For the first time in three years, we gathered together at CVU for Convocation and professional development. With nearly 500 faculty members in CVU's auditorium and library (livestreamed), we started the day with speeches and a fabulous keynote. 

First, CVU's student co-presidents Asa and Kyle spoke to the whole group about their experiences in CVSD schools, with shout-outs to the many educators that had a direct impact on them. They reminded us that they have yet to experience a high school year not impacted by COVID-19 and are excited to embark on this final year of learning and connecting. 

Angela Arsenault, our School Board chair, shared an inspirational welcome message. She acknowledged the challenges we've all faced through the pandemic. She led us through an exercise to envision our dream school and district that is supportive and inclusive for all children. 

Superintendent Rene Sanchez told of the work that the district's leadership team engaged in this summer, helping to develop a focus for the year. With teaching and learning at the center of our work, we will emphasize growth and belonging for all. Incorporated into that are the more specific topics of identity, direction, connection, and proficiency. We'll be sharing more information about how we will define and incorporate those terms into our work with students and one another soon. 

Rene also recognized faculty and staff who had been in the field of education for longer than 30 years, culminating with CVU teacher, Norm McClure, who is starting his 50th year! (Yes, you read that number right!)

Our keynote today was Joelle van Lent, a licensed psychologist who focuses on resiliency. Her presentation was authentic, inspiring, and engaging. There are many things that resonated with everyone, especially after the last few years. She provided ideas and suggestions for how we can support our students and each other. 

After a short break, we shifted the focus to those four areas of identity, direction, connection, and proficiency. Everyone was offered the choice of reading an article, listening to a podcast, or watching a video (there were multiple options for each under each topic). Then we gathered in rooms by topic and discussed our experiences and ideas. 

Our final activities were community circles of about 10 in each group. There were 50 groups spread out in rooms around CVU. We responded to questions about identity, direction, connection, and proficiency. And then each group created a collaborative quilt square with some plans and intentions for the year. These squares were collected and displayed together for all to see and appreciate. It's an impressive collection of creative and thoughtful expression and ideas. Zoom in if you can!

It was a great welcome to a new school year with a positive tone, engaging speakers and activities, and inspiration for a fabulous school year. Thank you to everyone who helped plan, coordinate, and facilitate the day. We're excited to welcome students back next week!